Your views in 200 words or less

June 18, 2012 1:31 pm

We drove up from Vancouver to visit the new LeMay-America’s Car Museum on Father’s Day. The crowds were nice, and everyone was in a great mood to celebrate. The parking situation spoiled what should have been a perfect day.

The Tacoma Dome parking lots were empty and locked. This meant that there was only parking for 10 percent of the cars. Why can’t the City of Tacoma find a way to allow the use of these lots for events at the car museum when they are not needed for the Dome? The Dome operators could have made lots of money if they would have opened.

City leaders need to examine the issue and get some kind of compromise between the Dome operators and the car museum. Why build a prestigious facility and then allow petty bickering to destroy the image of the city?

The empty lots around the car museum showed the visitors that there does not seem to be an adult in charge of the investment in infrastructure that the citizens have entrusted to their care. Too bad. I don’t plan to recommend Tacoma to any of my friends.

As someone who drives by the dome everyday I have wondered how the parking situation would be handled. These June weekends with the grand opening and seemingly non-stop graduation activities seemed to overwhelm the lots.

If they allowed for convient parking people would not park on Tacoma streets. If they don’t park on Tacoma streets the city parking nazis and their buddies at the tow companies would not get their fair share of your holiday spending.

Tacoma is a liberal city. They only care about their budgets, their friends in the unions that keep them in power and gaining additional revenue they can send to the union coffers.

My son took me to the LeMay Museum on Father’s Day and there was no parking problem at all, even with the crowd that was there. We parked in the lower lot. Cost was $5.00. By the way, the museum may look like a typical NW slug from the outside but inside it is absolutely gorgeous! And the nice thing is that it does not cost the price of a tank of gas to get in: just $14.00 per person full price with discounts for seniors, kids, AAA subscribers and State Farm policy holders (State Farm is a major sponsor).

I had been to the Marymount LeMay place before a couple of years ago and I have to say “Well Done!” to the people who designed and who run this new asset to Tacoma. I was skeptical until I visited, but no more.

Barry, I am sorry you had a bad experience with the parking. For everyone else, make the trip. It is worth it.

taxed
I love it. I would have thought that even YOU would ave had no way to turn THIS letter into an anti–union rant, but by God you did it. Keep up the good work, you don’t want anyone to start thinking you were sane or something.

Barry, you don’t realize that Tacoma is a “World Class City.” We are no Mayberry where folks can just park sideways anywhere they want to. We have a plan for your parking problem and if we can just figure out how to use our new $50,000 city website maybe somebody will be able ascertain what that plan is.

Sadly your parking experience was all too typical of Tacoma, where parking is managed by a committee, and where the primary goal is creating open space, rather than helping businesses and visitors. Unfortunately, they’ve been pretty successful.

Well Barry, that’s what you get when the city owns and runs a business. They’re not really effective OR efficient. Imagine a city owned business (convention center comes to mind) that is self supportive… kooky.

The city of Tacoma management is clueless in what the community needs or even wants. They don’t care and they make no effort to help. This museum is a total waste of space and will be no more useful than any of the other under utilized and poorly managed event sites in this city.

Wow, it’s not that hard to find parking on the street. The last time we visited the Dome, we parked on the street for free, rode the free train to the Dome and had a great time. A little prior planning goes a long way.

Just wanted to say we visited the Car Museum today (a Tuesday) and it was spectacular. If you love cars–or have a dad, grandpa or neighbor who grew up in the 1950’s–you must visit this collection. There are four floors and multiple exhibitions (Speed Demons, Classic Ferraris, Alternative Fuel Vehicles, etc.)

We stayed for four hours (including a lunch/coffee break). It was like visiting a toy store for adults. We’ll probably go back again later this year for another look.

Parking: almost empty at 11 am on a weekday. I think it’s much more enjoyable to browse without the crowds, so try to visit when it’s not a holiday or peak period. Otherwise, get there early (9:45 am) if this is an issue for you.

The parking lot isn’t very big, so I can see how it may fill up quickly on the weekend. Best bet is to drive up to the entrance and drop off the seniors or those who can’t walk long distances, then find parking in the lot, and if that’s full, down the street.

It’s one of the best museums I’ve visited in years, so whatever the logistics, it’s worth the visit.

It was Folly to build a large second event center and gobble up more parking from the Dome. This will deter big concerts from performing here once the parking fiasco is common knowledge, with loss of revenue. I can understand the Dome not sharing their lots when not having an event, becasue they’d have to staff security. We should have built a mutli-tier garage before allowing LeMay to sprawl into Dome territory. Once the D Street ovepass comes down for I-5 widening, neighborhood parking will be gone and it’ll really be a struggle.

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